World Music Legends Celia CruzEveryone has a story to tell about Celia Cruz, the Cuban singer whose contagious voice and larger-than-life persona helped turn Afro-Cuban music into an international phenomenon.
By Eliseo Cardona

World Music Features Andrea Echeverri
The iconoclastic singer and songwriter of alterna-punk Latin rockers Aterciopelados finds herself a new mother, and admits that even rebellious rockers have “a soft side.”
By Eliseo Cardona

World Music Legends
Tito Puente
For many, the late great timbalero, composer and bandleader Tito Puente was the public face of Latin music in America. Like Count Basie or Duke Ellington, he was more than a musician, he was a personality, a brand unto himself.
By Eliseo Cardona

Maria Bethania has been hailed as the “Queen of Brazilian Song.” On her latest album, Maricotinha, Bethania recasts old hits while presenting new ones in her smoky, throaty voice. One of the founders of the Tropicalia movement, Bethania gives new meaning to nuance.

World Music Features
Bebo Valdes and Diego El Cigala
Bebo Valdes and Diego El Cigala create a rich exchange—Cuban and Latin American standards reinvigorated by passionate flamenco vocals, mediated by a jazz sensibility—that’s more than the sum of its parts.
By Eliseo Cardona

World Music Features
Jorge Ben Jor
Ask any Brazilian music connoisseur about funk (pronounced “fankee” in Portuguese) and you’ll probably end up getting a lecture on Jorge Ben Jor, the master singer, songwriter and guitarist from Rio de Janeiro.
By Eliseo Cardona

African Legends BongaOver his 30-year career, and an equal number of albums, Angola’s Bonga has traced the arc of his country’s recent history, from the Portuguese colonial experience to Angola’s struggle for independence and the scars of its recently-ended civil war.
By Eliseo Cardona